Zita the Spacegirl

Writer and artist: Ben Hatke
Publisher: First Second

What's it about?

This is a brilliant little book for kids (aged 8 to 12) about a planet hopping girl named Zita.  The book starts with her on Earth playing outside with a friend, Joseph.  Her friend gets sucked through a portal and Zita runs away in fear and shock (she is only little after all).  Given some time to get over the shock, she returns to where Joseph was taken, reactivates the portal, and goes through herself in order to rescue him.  She finds herself on a planet which everyone is evacuating as it is due to blow up in 3 days.

Anya's Ghost

Welcome to another guest reviewer, Becky Hawkins.  Becky dew her first minicomic in 2007, right before landing a job as a cruise ship musician. Since then, she has kept a travel-journal online,  self-published eight more minicomics, and contributed to The Zinester’s Guide to NYC. She especially loves drawing food, old buildings and quirky bodies. If she had a spouse or a cat, she would mention them here.  Becky is the creator of French Toast Comix (which we reviewed here).  You can follow her on twitter using @hawkins_becky.
On to the review..

Art and Words by Vera Brosgol
Publisher: First Second

Laika

Writer and artist: Nick Abadzis
Publisher: First Second
 
What's it about?
This is the story of the Russian fight to win the space race and the little dog they sent into orbit, Laika.  All events are centred around Laika, but it is not told from the perspective of Laika, or Kudryavka as she is named by various carers.  It's part fiction, part fact.

The story is narrated chiefly by three people, Korolev, Chief Designer of the space rockets, Yelena, dog handler for the programme, and fictionalised families that have cared for Kudryavka in her early years.

By using these different viewpoints Abadzis walks us through many aspects of Soviet life and we bear witness to the diffiuclties and contradictions facing everyday people, as well as the joys.  We learn about the cruelty of the ruling party, the ambition of your average Soviet citizen, the transition from Stalin's regime to Khruschev's, and we get an inkling of the effect that life in the gulags had on those poor souls sent there.